Removing slamming protection to permit a change in service providers

ABSTRACT

A designated service provider of a customer having slamming protection on their account may not be changed without authorization from the customer to remove the slamming protection. When a customer&#39;s telephone company receives a request to change the customer&#39;s long distance provider and subsequently determines that the customer has slamming protection on their account, the telephone company notifies the requester that the requested change may not be provisioned due to the slamming protection. The customer&#39;s authorization to remove the slamming protection is provided by the requester in the form of an audio file that is reviewed by the telephone company. If the telephone company or an agent of the telephone company listens to the audio file and approves the request, then the customer&#39;s slamming protection is removed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention is related to the field oftelecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates toremoving slamming protection from a customer's account when the customerwants to change their preferred long distance provider.

[0003] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document containsmaterial which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright ownerhas no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patentdocument or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

[0004] 2. Acronyms

[0005] Ameritech Service Order Negotiation (ASON)

[0006] Billing Telephone Number (BTN)

[0007] Carrier Identification Code (CIC)

[0008] Carrier Request (CR)

[0009] Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE)

[0010] Electronic 3-Way Call (E3WC)

[0011] Extensible Markup Language (XML)

[0012] Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

[0013] File Transport Protocol (FTP)

[0014] Graphical User Interface (GUI)

[0015] Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

[0016] Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

[0017] Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)

[0018] Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

[0019] Local Access and Transport Area (LATA)

[0020] Local Exchange Carrier (LEC)

[0021] Local Preferred Interexchange Carrier (LPIC)

[0022] Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS)

[0023] Preferred Interexchange Carrier (PIC)

[0024] Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

[0025] Service Order Server Applications (SOSA)

[0026] Telephone Number (TN)

[0027] Third Party Verification (TPV)

[0028] Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

[0029] Working Telephone Number (WTN)

[0030] 3. Background and Material Information

[0031] In the past, if a potential customer consented to a change intheir long distance carrier, then the long distance carrier wouldcontact the customer's local telephone company to provision the change.Eventually, however, certain long distance companies began contactinglocal telephone companies and indicating that a potential customer hadauthorized a change in their long distance carrier, when in fact no suchconsent was granted by the customer. Ignorant of the falsehood, thecustomer's local telephone company would change the service asinstructed by the carrier and the customer would receive service andincur charges from the newly provisioned long distance provider. Thisillegal practice eventually became known as slamming. In response to theadvent of slamming, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopteda requirement that the new service provider must first obtain thirdparty verification (TPV) before a customer is switched to a new longdistance carrier. The TPV is recorded and performed by an entitydistinct from the long distance carrier and serves to verify that thecustomer consents to the change.

[0032] Thus, when a long distance carrier makes a sale to a customer, aTPV is performed and a recording is made of the telephone conversation.Then, the long distance provider submits a request to change thecustomer's long distance provider. If the customer has slammingprotection on their account, then the local telephone company may notprovision the change in long distance providers and notifies the longdistance provider accordingly.

[0033] As a result, the long distance carrier will typically contact thecustomer and request that the customer contact their local telephonecompany and indicate that slamming protection be removed from theiraccount. Alternatively, a three-way call may be attempted between thecustomer, the long distance provider, and the local telephone company.Often, a customer cannot be reached or does not have time to contacttheir local phone company. This is especially true when attempting toschedule a three-way call. In any event, the resulting frustration mayresult in lost sales for the carrier.

[0034] Therefore, it would be advantageous to automate and streamlinethe process of removing slamming protection from a customer's accountwhen the customer wants to change their preferred long distanceprovider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] The present invention is further described in the detaileddescription that follows, by reference to the noted drawings by way ofnon-limiting examples of embodiments of the present invention, in whichlike reference numerals represent similar parts throughout several viewsof the drawings, and in which:

[0036]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an exemplary telecommunicationsnetwork, according to an aspect of the present invention;

[0037]FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram, according to an aspect of thepresent invention;

[0038]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary telecommunicationsnetwork, according to an aspect of the present invention;

[0039]FIG. 4 shows an exemplary request record, according to an aspectof the present invention;

[0040]FIG. 5 shows an exemplary disposition record, according to anaspect of the present invention; and

[0041]FIG. 6 is an exemplary web page, according to an aspect of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0042] The present invention relates to an automated, streamlinedprocess for allowing a customer to remove slamming protection from theiraccount when they would like to change their long distance provider.Slamming protection, also known as a preferred interexchange carrier(PIC) freeze, prevents a customer's long distance provider from beingchanged. The customer's PIC provides the customer's long distanceservice for inter-LATA calls. Related thereto, a local preferredinterexchange carrier (LPIC), provides the customer's local toll servicefor intra-LATA calls. Thus, the term long distance carrier/provider, asused herein, includes both PICs and LPICs. In addition, the terms longdistance provider, long distance carrier, and service provider are usedinterchangeably herein. Further, the terms telephone company, localtelephone company, and telco are used interchangeably herein.

[0043] In view of the above, the present invention through one or moreof its various aspects and/or embodiments is presented to accomplish oneor more objectives and advantages, such as those noted below.

[0044] Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide amethod for removing a protection associated with a customer's accountthat prevents a change of the customer's service provider. The methodincludes receiving a request to remove the protection from thecustomer's account, wherein the request includes an audio file thatincludes the customer's authorization to remove the protection. Themethod further includes listening to the customer's authorization in theaudio file and determining whether to remove the protection. Then, theprotection is removed when the determination indicates that theprotection is to be removed.

[0045] The audio file including the customer's authorization may bereferenced by a hyperlink associated with the audio file. The protectionassociated with the customer's account includes slamming protection andthe service provider may be the customer's preferred interexchangecarrier (PIC) and/or the customer's local preferred interexchangecarrier (LPIC).

[0046] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a methodfor removing a protection associated with a customer's account thatprevents a change of the customer's service provider. The methodincludes receiving a request to change the customer's service providerand determining that the requested change cannot be provisioned due tothe protection associated with the customer's account. In response tothe determination, notification is provided that the change cannot beprovisioned without the customer authorizing removal of the protection.Then, the customer's authorization to remove the protection is receivedand reviewed and a decision is made as to whether to remove theprotection based upon the review of the customer's authorization.

[0047] If approved, the protection associated with the customer'saccount may be removed, thereby enabling the customer's service providerto be changed. In addition, a disposition notice may be sent in responseto a resolution as to whether to remove the protection.

[0048] The protection associated with the customer's account includesslamming protection and the service provider may be the customer's PICand/or LPIC.

[0049] The request may include customer account information and thecustomer's authorization to remove the protection may be accessed via ahyperlink associated with an audio file.

[0050] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a methodfor removing slamming protection from a customer's account when thecustomer has requested a service provider change. The method includespresenting a script to the customer that solicits at least one responsefrom the customer including whether the customer authorizes the removalof slamming protection from the customer' account. In addition, themethod includes recording and storing the script and the at least onecustomer response and then sending a request via the Internet requestingthat the slamming protection be removed from the customer's account. Therequest includes a link associated with an audio file that contains therecording of the customer's authorization to remove the slammingprotection.

[0051] The request may be sent in response to a rejection received fromthe customer's local telephone company to change the service provider ofthe customer. The rejection is reviewed and notification of therejection may be submitted to a third party verification vendor. In thiscase, the third party verification vendor receives the notification andreviews the customer's authorization. In addition, the third partyverification vendor may edit the audio file.

[0052] The request may be sent by the service provider, which may be thecustomer's PIC and/or LPIC. Otherwise, the request may be sent by athird party verification vendor.

[0053] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a systemfor removing a protection preventing the change of a customer's serviceprovider without authorization of the customer. The system includes aserver that receives a request to remove the protection, in which therequest includes a link to an audio file of the customer authorizing theremoval of the protection. The system also includes a database thatstores customer information and compares the information associated withthe request against the stored customer information. Also, a client isprovided that activates the link causing the audio file to play. Thesystem may also include a computer that generates an order to remove theprotection.

[0054] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a methodfor effecting a change associated with a customer's account in which thechange requires a verbal authorization of the customer. The methodincludes receiving a request to effect a change on the customer'saccount, in which the request includes an audio file containing thecustomer's authorization to effect the change and referencing the audiofile by a hyperlink associated with the audio file. The method furtherincludes listening to the customer's authorization in the audio file anddetermining whether to effect the change and effecting the change whenthe determination indicates that the change should be effected.

[0055]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an exemplary telecommunicationsnetwork, according to an aspect of the present invention. A longdistance provider 10 communicates through a communications network suchas the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 12 with a customer 15.The means of communication between the long distance provider 10 and thecustomer 15 is not limited to the PSTN 12 and may include, for example,communications such as internet telephony. The long distance provider 10attempts to acquire the prospective business of the customer 15. If thelong distance provider successfully markets itself and makes a sale toprovide future long distance services to the customer 15, then TPV isperformed by a TPV vendor 20, on behalf of the long distance provider10, in accordance with FCC requirements.

[0056] Thus, the customer 15 is transferred to the TPV vendor 20 and thelong distance provider 10 is disconnected from the call with thecustomer 15. Depending upon regulations, the long distance provider 10may remain on the line while the TPV is performed. In any event, the TPVis performed by the TPV vendor 20 using an interactive voice response(IVR) system. Otherwise, the TPV may be conducted by a live operator ofthe TPV vendor 20. Whether an IVR or live operator is used by the TPVvendor 20, TPV is performed and in doing so, a recording (e.g., an audiorecording) is made of the exchange between the TPV vendor 20 and thecustomer 15, to verify the customer's desire to change carriers.

[0057] In addition, a script is presented to the customer 15 asking forconsent to remove slamming protection from their account in order tochange the customer's current long distance provider. The script istypically performed by the TPV vendor; however, the long distanceprovider 10 may perform this function in which case the long distanceprovider 10 must be re-connected with the customer 15. In presenting thescript to the customer 15, certain identifying information is elicitedfrom the customer, e.g., name, social security number, date of birth,telephone number in which change will be made, whether the customer 15is authorized to order that the slamming protection be removed from theaccount, whether the customer consents to the having a recording of thetelephone call sent to the telephone company 25, etc. This is known asthe electronic 3-way call (E3WC) process script. Further, the name ofthe new long distance provider may be included in the script that ispresented to the customer 15. The E3WC script presented to the customer15, along with the customer's responses are recorded and stored on a webserver. The web server storing the script and response may be located,for example, at the long distance provider 10 or the TPV vendor 20.Thus, an E3WC is performed and in doing so, a recording (e.g., an audiorecording) is made of the exchange between the TPV vendor 20 and thecustomer 15, for the approval to remove the slamming protection on thecustomer's 15 account.

[0058] If the E3WC script is performed by the TPV vendor 20, then theTPV vendor 20 may make a cropped recording of the original recordingremoving, for example, the TPV pertaining to the change of providers. Inthis case, the cropped recording is stored on a web server as notedabove.

[0059] The telephone company 25 receives requests from the long distanceprovider 10 to change a customer's PIC and/or LPIC. These requests arereceived via the known customer account record exchange (CARE) or otherknown manner. CARE is a system that facilitates the exchange of customeraccount information between telecommunications entities in order toprovision services. Essentially, CARE provides a consistent definitionand data format for the exchange of common data elements. If thecustomer 15 has slamming protection on their account, then the telephonecompany 25 would be unable to process the request to change thecustomer's PIC and/or LPIC for reasons previously discussed. As aresult, the telephone company 25 sends a message via CARE to the longdistance provider 10 indicating that the request to change thecustomer's PIC and/or LPIC has been rejected (as will be discussed inmore detail below) and that the customer 15 has slamming protection ontheir account, an indication that the potential customer's consent toremove slamming protection must be provided.

[0060] Thereafter, and as will be explained in more detail below, thelong distance provider 10 or the TPV vendor 20 provides the telephonecompany 25 with customer account information and a uniform resourcelocator (URL) hyperlink that references an audio file (i.e., E3WC) ofthe exchange between the customer 15 and the TPV vendor 20. Thehyperlink may employ, for example, the hypertext markup language (HTML),the extensible markup language (XML), or any equivalents.

[0061] The audio file purportedly contains the customer's consent toremove the PIC and/or LPIC slamming protection. Then, once an agent ofthe telephone company 25 reviews the audio recording, a decision is madeas to whether to approve or deny the request to remove the slammingprotection. If the request is approved, a service order is generated bythe telephone company 25 and the slamming protection is removed. In anyevent, a disposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10and/or the TPV vendor 20 advising the recipient of the disposition.

[0062]FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram, according to an aspect of thepresent invention. At step S200, a representative of the long distanceprovider 10, in communication with the customer 15 receives verbalindication from the customer 15 that the customer 15 would like toswitch their long distance service to the provider of therepresentative.

[0063] At step S202, TPV is performed and a recording is made of theexchange between the TPV vendor 20 and the customer 15, including thescript and responses. As discussed, the TPV vendor 20 follows the TPVprocess with a script asking the customer for consent to remove slammingprotection from their account in order to change the long distanceprovider, thus performing an initial portion of an E3WC.

[0064] An exemplary script employed by an IVR or operator of the TPVvendor 20 may include “Please identify yourself by name, social securitynumber, and/or date of birth”. In addition, the customer 15 may be askedwhether they are authorized to request that slamming protection beremoved from the account and whether they consent to have theconversation recorded. After the customer 15 provides the requestedinformation, the exemplary script may continue as follows: “If you haveslamming protection on your account, do you consent to have theprotection removed so that your long distance provider may be changed?”In addition, the name of the long distance provider and/or any otherrelevant information may be included in the script.

[0065] At step S204, the long distance provider 10 submits a request tothe telephone company 25 to change the customer's PIC and/or LPIC. Atstep S206, the telephone company 25 receives the request and determinesthat the customer 15 has slamming protection on their account. If noslamming protection exists on the customer's account, then the requestedchange may be provisioned by known processes.

[0066] It is noted that in some jurisdictions, customers may have anoption of placing slamming protection on their account. With slammingprotection on the account, the telephone company 25 is prohibited fromprocessing the request to change the PIC and/or LPIC without thecustomer's consent. As a result, at step S208, the telephone company 25sends a rejection record with a “2166” transaction code to the longdistance provider 10. A “2166” transaction code indicates that changingof the PIC/LPIC is restricted and thus, no carrier initiated PIC and/orLPIC changes will be accepted for processing by the telephone company25.

[0067] At step S210 the long distance provider 10 receives the rejectionrecord (i.e., “2166”) due to slamming protection on the customer'saccount and submits notification of rejected records to the TPV vendor20, depending upon the arrangement between the long distance provider 10and the TPV vendor 20. If notification is submitted to the TPV vendor20, then it may include a list of the records that were rejected over acertain period of time (e.g., in a given day). Alternatively,notification may be provided to the TPV vendor 20 one record at a time.Based on the list of rejected records due to slamming protection, atstep S212 the TPV vendor 20 reviews the previously made recordings(i.e., E3WC recordings) of the customer's consent and verifies thecustomer's 15 approval to remove the slamming protection. At this point,if the TPV vendor 20 had not done so previously, the TPV vendor 20 maymake a cropped recording of the original recording, as previouslydiscussed.

[0068] At step S214 the long distance provider 10, or the TPV vendor 20acting under direction of the long distance provider 10, sends a file tothe telephone company 25 with account information and a link (e.g., URLhyperlink) to the original or cropped recording, (ie., E3WC recording),as the case may be. Alternatively, the file includes account informationand links for a plurality of customers. At step S216, the telephonecompany 25 receives the file and checks to see if the customer has anaccount with the telephone company 25. If the telephone company 25receives account information and links for a plurality of customers, therequests may be processed individually. If the customer 15 does not havean account with the telephone company, the request is rejected at stepS220 and a disposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10 atstep S236. If the customer 15 is determined to be an account holder atstep S218, then a determination is made at step S222 as to whether thecustomer 15 has slamming protection. If the customer 15 does not haveslamming protection, the request is rejected at step S224 and adisposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10 at step S236.In this case, the long distance provider 10 may resubmit a request tochange the customer's PIC and/or LPIC through known processes. If thecustomer 15 is determined to have slamming protection at step S222, thenthe telephone company 25 (or an agent thereof) reviews the E3WCrecording at step S226. If the agent denies the request at step s228(for reasons discussed below), then the request is rejected at step S230and a disposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10 at stepS236. If the agent approves the request at step S228, then a serviceorder is generated at step S232. The service order removes the slammingprotection from the customer's account at step S234. In alternativeembodiments, at step S234, the service order may provision any serviceor function that requires customer consent. At step S236, a dispositionfile is sent to the long distance provider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20notifying the recipient of the disposition, thus completing the E3WC.

[0069]FIG. 3 is an exemplary telecommunications network, according toone aspect of the present invention. The network includes an internetweb server 50, an FTP server 55, the Internet 60, a telephone companyintranet 65, a customer care ordering system 70, a database server 75,an intranet web server 80, and desktops used by the reviewer 85. Theinternet web server 50 may comprise any known server that supportshypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). The FTP server 55 may comprise anyknown server that supports standard FTP. The customer care orderingsystem 70 comprises, for example, an IBM legacy mainframe on a multiplevirtual storage (MVS) operating system. The database server 75comprises, for example, an Intel Zeon Multi-Processor on a Windows 2000Server operating system and runs the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 databasemanagement system. The intranet web server 80 comprises, for example, anIntel Zeon Multi-Processor on a Windows 2000 Server operating system andruns Microsoft Internet Information Server. Each reviewer 85 comprises,for example, an Intel Desktop on a Windows NT/2000 operating system andruns Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that the present invention may also be implemented onhardware, operating systems, database management systems, and softwareother than those mentioned.

[0070] The internet web server 50 may be operated by the long distanceprovider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20. In the alternative, it may beoperated by the telephone company 25 or an agent thereof. The internetweb server 50 stores the E3WC audio recordings of the script andresponses that are created by the TPV vendor 20. That is, the audiofiles recorded by the TPV vendor 20 reside on the internet web server50. The FTP server 55 may be owned by the telephone company 25 andpermits an exchange of files between the telephone company 25 and thelong distance provider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20 over the Internet 60.The telephone company 25 also has a firewall (not shown) and a gateway(not shown) located between the Internet 60 and the telephone companyintranet 65. The customer care ordering system 70 maintains the recordsof the telephone company's customers. The customer care ordering system70 receives requests from the long distance provider 10 and/or the TPVvendor 20 and compares the data within the requests against the customerrecords stored in a database. Further, the customer care ordering system70 generates service orders in situations where the customer's slammingprotection is to be removed.

[0071] The database server 75 stores requests from the long distanceprovider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20, in response to a “2166” rejection,asking the telephone company 25 to remove a customer's slammingprotection. The intranet web server 80 stores the web page that allowsthe reviewer 85 to access and listen to the recordings made by the TPVvendor 20, as well as approve or deny requests to remove a customer'sslamming protection. The reviewer 85 uses a graphical user interface(GUI) on desktops, for instance, to click on an icon to listen to theaudio recording. In addition, all of the account information associatedwith the recording is displayed on the GUI. An approval by the reviewer85 is transmitted via the telephone company intranet 65 to the customercare ordering system 70 where a service order is prepared. Batch jobsare periodically run throughout each day to execute the service orders.In addition, the reviewer 85 sends a disposition file (as will bediscussed later) to the FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by thelong distance provider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20. In this regard, thetelephone company 25 may send one file, at the end of each day forinstance, reflecting all of the dispositions for that day.

[0072] A file containing account information and a URL link torespective recording files is sent to the telephone company 25 via asecured FTP connection at predetermined intervals, e.g., daily. Securityof the recording files is embedded in the URL either through the use ofa secured connection (i.e., https://) or through the passing of securitytokens, in a known manner. To achieve the security of the recordingfiles, the telephone company 25 will provide the sender with the IPaddress and/or host name of the designated FTP server, as well as anaccount name and password. Each record in the file represents a requestto remove slamming protection from the specified account. An exemplaryrecord is illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0073]FIG. 4 shows an exemplary record sent from a long distanceprovider to the telephone company. The record 400, a carrier request(CR) file definition, includes a position column 401, a format column402, a description column 403, and a CARE position column 404. Theposition column 401 indicates the positions within the record (ie., theposition of the bytes associated with a field) that a particularvariable is located. The format column 402 indicates the type and lengthof the data being transmitted. That is, an “X” indicates that analphanumeric value must be populated and a “9” indicates that a numericvalue must be populated. The length in “( )” indicates the number ofcharacters the value may hold.

[0074] The description column 403 identifies the element correspondingto the position and format in columns 401 and 402, respectively. TheCARE position column 404 indicates the positions where the data may belocated in an original CARE record submitted to the telephone company tochange the customer's long distance carrier, only to have the requestrejected due to the existence of slamming protection on the account. Therecord 400 may also contain other information, which may or may notinclude the “2166” transaction code from the reject record, asidentified in step S204 in FIG. 2.

[0075] Rows 405 and 406 include the four character alphanumericidentification codes of the long distance carrier and the local exchangecarrier, respectively. Row 407 identifies the ten digit workingtelephone number (WTN) of the customer 15. Row 408 includes a onecharacter alphanumeric jurisdictional indicator that identifies whetherthe request pertains to an intraLATA LPIC change (value=A) or aninterLATA PIC change (value=E). In addition, the telephone company 25may arrange an agreement with the long distance provider 10 and/or TPVvendor 20 so that other values may be populated. For instance, a “B” maybe populated in the row 408 as a convenience to the long distanceprovider 10, in which case the records containing a “B” would be splitinto separate intraLATA and interLATA records.

[0076] Row 409 includes a 6 digit date (in yymmdd format) as found onthe telephone company's “2166” rejection record that was previously sentto the long distance provider 10. Row 410 includes a one characteralphanumeric designation as to whether the recorded file is in English(value=E) or Spanish (value=S). Row 411 is reserved for a one characteralphanumeric value that will be populated by the telephone company 25with a disposition code in response to the CR file definition. Row 412is reserved for future use for a value not exceeding seventy-threealphanumeric characters. Row 413 is reserved for a variable length URLof unlimited length that points to the TPV vendor's recording file,associated with the particular account (i.e., WTN) identified in the CRfile definition.

[0077] Referring to row 413, the URL is a variable length field toaccommodate URLs of any length. Via the URL, the provider of therecording is capable of specifying not only the location of therecording, the protocol, the recording format, and the access method.

[0078] The E3WC recording may comprise any suitable format including,but not limited to known formats such as .wav, mpg, .wma, .au, .aiff,.mpa, .gsm, .vmf, .ra, .vox, etc. Further, the technology used toprovide access to the recordings may include, but is not limited to CGI,ASP, DLL, htm, JavaScript, etc. While the TPV vendor 20 may allow directaccess to its sound files (e.g., https://www.nameoffile.wav), it mayalso have an intermediate layer of software as a means of preventingunlimited access to its data. Thus, the file may be accessed by passinga dynamic parameter (e.g., the WTN or tn, for short) from one page toanother by appending the parameter to the URL reference of the targetpage. As is known, parameters may be passed with a URL by appending thename of the variable that is being passed and its associated value,separated by a “?”. For instance, an exemplary URL that may be providedis shown as follows:https://www.tpvvendor.com/retrieverecording.cgi?tn=1234567890. In thisexample, the hyperlink passes a variable named “tn” with a value of1234567890. While this URL does not directly reference the .wav file, itdetermines the location of the file and presents it to the user, in thiscase, to the reviewer 85.

[0079] When the reviewer 85 references the URL (ie., by clicking on anicon, for instance), the URL causes the recording to be opened andplayed using the default media player associated with the file extensionor by a custom interface defined by the TPV vendor 20. For example, theURL could cause the browser to open a new pop up window that provides acustom or embedded media player, or any other player that allows a userto listen and perform basic functions such as play, pause, stop, fastforward, and rewind.

[0080] At predetermined intervals (e.g., daily) the telephone company 25sends a file, via a secured FTP connection, to the long distanceprovider 10 or TPV vendor 20 reflecting the dispositions of all of therecords processed during the interval. Thus, the long distance carrier10 or TPV vendor 20 must provide the IP address and/or host name oftheir designated FTP server, as well as an account name and password.

[0081]FIG. 5 is an exemplary record sent from the telephone company tothe long distance provider. The record 500, a CR disposition filedefinition layout, is identical to the record shown in FIG. 4, exceptthat a disposition code is no longer reserved, but would be populated byan appropriate disposition code in row 511. Due to the correspondencebetween FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the various elements in FIG. 5 will not bediscussed again for the sake of brevity. Exemplary disposition codes areprovided in TABLE 1 below and discussed thereafter. TABLE 1 CODEINDICATION EXPLANATION 0 Processed Slamming protection has been removed1 Invalid Account Customer is not an account holder 2 Toll RestrictionCustomer has toll restriction on account 3 No Slamming Slammingprotection not on account Protection 4 Inaudible All or part ofrecording is inaudible 5 Invalid Script Standard script not used 6Invalid Information Information does not match customer 7 CustomerDenied Customer denied request

[0082] Specifically, a disposition code of “0” indicates that slammingprotection has been removed from the account by the telephone company25. A disposition code of “1” indicates an invalid account condition,meaning that the customer is not a customer of the telephone company 25,for instance. A disposition code of “2” indicates that the customer 15has toll restriction on the account, meaning that the customer 15 hasblocked the ability to dial long distance telephone calls from thespecified WTN. A disposition code of “3” indicates that no slammingprotection exists on the account. A disposition code of “4” indicatesthat all or a portion of the recording is inaudible. A disposition codeof “5” indicates an invalid script, meaning that the E3WC scriptemployed by the TPV vendor 20 was inappropriate or otherwiseunacceptable. A disposition code of “6” indicates that the informationprovided about the customer 15 does not match the account records. Forinstance, a telephone number or social security number recorded in theaudio file do not match those listed in the customer's account stored atthe customer care ordering system 70. A disposition code of “7”indicates that the customer denied authorization to remove slammingprotection from the account, e.g., the recording was not an explicitconsent by the customer to remove the slamming protection.

[0083]FIG. 6 is an exemplary web page according to an aspect of thepresent invention. The web page 600 permits access to customer accountinformation that is stored at the customer care ordering system 70 andrequest information that is stored at the database server 75.

[0084] The web page 600 includes a billing telephone identifier (BTN)601 and a customer identifier 602 that identify customer specificinformation. A local exchange carrier (LEC) identifier 603 and a carrieridentification code (CIC) identifier 604 identify the telephone company25 and the long distance carrier 10, respectively. A telephone number(TN) column 605 provides the WTN and a jurisdiction column 606 indicateswhether the request pertains to an intra-LATA LPIC or inter-LATA PICrequest. A date column provides the date of the request in column 607.When a request is approved, a check is placed in column 608 by thereviewer 85. In the event that a request is denied, the reason for thedenial is indicated using a drop down menu in column 609.

[0085] A listen icon 610 is linked to the URL of the audio file in aknown manner such that, when clicked, it causes a pop-up window (notshown) to be displayed to the reviewer 85 and also activates the audiofile. That is, the recording begins to play. In addition, the pop-upwindow includes play, pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind functions sothat the reviewer 85 may control the recording as needed. A messagewindow 611 includes customer identifying information.

[0086] In operation, when a representative of long distance provider 10makes a sale to the customer 15 the call is transferred to the TPVvendor 20. An IVR at the TPV vendor 20 performs TPV and runs an E3WCscript in a manner previously discussed. In the alternative, as statedearlier, the long distance provider 10 may run the E3WC script. Afterthe script and responses have been recorded, the TPV vendor 20disconnects the telephone call with the customer 15.

[0087] Thereafter, the TPV vendor 20 may notify the long distanceprovider 10, in a known manner, that the TPV has been completed. Next,the long distance provider 10 submits a request to the telephone company25 to change the customer's PIC and/or LPIC. This request is typicallysent via CARE, in a known manner.

[0088] From there, the customer care ordering system 70 accesses therequest, performs a look up in its database, and determines that the WTNassociated with the request has slamming protection. As a result, thecustomer care ordering system 70 dispatches a “2166” rejection recordvia CARE using known processes, if the account has slamming protectionon it.

[0089] Based on the list of rejected records, the TPV vendor 20retrieves the rejection records, either directly or with the support ofthe long distance provider 10. Then, the TPV vendor 20 or long distanceprovider 10, for each “2166” record, reviews the previously made E3WCrecordings of the customer's consent and verifies the potentialcustomer's 15 approval to remove the slamming protection.

[0090] The TPV vendor 20 then sends a CR file definition (or multiple CRfile definitions) over the Internet 60 to the FTP server 55; although,this transmission may originate from the long distance provider 10. TheCR file definition contains customer account information and a link(e.g., URL hyperlink) to the E3WC recording made by the TPV vendor 20.Thereafter, the telephone company 25 accesses the CR file definitionthat is stored on the FTP server 55 and through the telephone companyintranet 65 stores the request on the database server 75. The request(or requests) are time stamped to reflect the original date of the“2166” record, the date of receipt of the CR file definition, and thetime that the record was stored on the database server 75.

[0091] Then, the customer care ordering system 70 accesses the CR filedefinition via the telephone company intranet 65 and compares eachrecord to the corresponding customer records stored in its database. Ifa corresponding customer record is not located in the database, then thecustomer care ordering system 70 sends a message indicating thiscondition through the telephone company intranet 65 and the Internet 60to the FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distanceprovider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20.

[0092] Otherwise, if a corresponding customer record is located, then adetermination is made as to whether the customer has slamming protectionon their account. If no slamming protection exists on the account, thenthe customer care ordering system 70 sends a message indicating thiscondition through the telephone company intranet 65 and the Internet 60to the FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distanceprovider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20. If a corresponding customer recordis located in the customer care ordering system 70 and the customer isdetermined to have slamming protection on their account, then thecustomer care ordering system 70 sends a message through the telephonecompany intranet 65 to the reviewer 85 indicating which CR filedefinition records to access so that respective audio files may bereviewed.

[0093] The reviewer 85, accessing the web page 600 stored on theintranet web server 80, listens to the respective sound files identifiedby the customer care ordering system 70. The reviewer 85 has access tothese files through the database server 75 via the telephone companyintranet 65. By clicking on the listen icon 610, the reviewer 85 listensto the E3WC recordings, as previously discussed. If the reviewer 85denies the request, then a rejection message is sent from the reviewer85 via the telephone company intranet 65 through the Internet 60 to theFTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distance provider 10and/or the TPV vendor 20.

[0094] An approval by the reviewer 85 is transmitted via the telephonecompany intranet 65 to the customer care ordering system 70 where aservice order is prepared. Then, the reviewer 85 sends a dispositionfile via the telephone company intranet 65 through the Internet 60 tothe FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distance provider10 and/or the TPV vendor 20.

[0095] The service order contains a list of telephone numbers for whichslamming protection is to be removed and an indication of whether toremove the PIC and/or LPIC protection. The service order instructs thatthe slamming protection be removed from the customer's account. That is,a program reads the service order and executes the instructionscontained in the service order to remove the slamming protection. In oneembodiment, the service order is sent via FTP to a Unix-based serviceorder server applications (SOSA) system which reads the service orderand inputs an order into the Ameritech Service Order Negotiation (ASON)subsystem to remove the slamming protection. Then, the ASON sends asuccess or failure notification message to the customer care orderingsystem 70 as appropriate. Alternatively, the slamming protection may beremoved by other, known processes.

[0096] Once the customer's slamming protection has been removed, thecustomer's designated long distance carrier may resubmit a request tothe telephone company 25 to change the customer's PIC and/or LPIC. Ifappropriate, a database in a switch servicing the customer is changed toreflect the desired change in service. Thereafter, the slammingprotection may be reinstated on the account, for instance, at therequest of the customer or other known processes.

[0097] Although the invention has been described with reference toseveral exemplary embodiments, it is understood that the words that havebeen used are words of description and illustration, rather than wordsof limitation. Changes may be made within the purview of the appendedclaims, as presently stated and as amended, without departing from thescope and spirit of the invention in its aspects. Although the inventionhas been described with reference to particular means, materials andembodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to theparticulars disclosed; rather, the invention extends to all functionallyequivalent structures, methods, and uses such as are within the scope ofthe appended claims.

[0098] In accordance with various embodiments of the present invention,the methods described herein are intended for operation as softwareprograms running on a computer processor. Dedicated hardwareimplementations including, but not limited to, application specificintegrated circuits, programmable logic arrays and other hardwaredevices can likewise be constructed to implement the methods describedherein. Furthermore, alternative software implementations including, butnot limited to, distributed processing or component/object distributedprocessing, parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can alsobe constructed to implement the methods described herein.

[0099] It should also be noted that the software implementations of thepresent invention as described herein are optionally stored on atangible storage medium, such as: a magnetic medium such as a disk ortape; a magneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk; or a solidstate medium such as a memory card or other package that houses one ormore read-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or otherre-writable (volatile) memories. A digital file attachment to email orother self-contained information archive or set of archives isconsidered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storagemedium. Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangiblestorage medium or distribution medium, as listed herein and includingart-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the softwareimplementations herein are stored.

[0100] Although the present specification describes components andfunctions implemented in the embodiments with reference to particularstandards and protocols, the invention is not limited to such standardsand protocols. Each of the standards for Internet and otherpacket-switched network transmission (e.g., HTML, XML, FTP) representexamples of the state of the art. Such standards are periodicallysuperseded by faster or more efficient equivalents having essentiallythe same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents

What is claimed:
 1. A method for removing a protection associated with acustomer's account that prevents a change of the customer's serviceprovider, the method comprising: receiving a request to remove theprotection from the customer's account, the request including an audiofile comprising the customer's authorization to remove the protection;listening to the customer's authorization in the audio file anddetermining whether to remove the protection; and removing theprotection when the determining indicates that the protection is to beremoved.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the audio file isreferenced by a hyperlink associated with the audio file.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the protection comprises slammingprotection.
 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the serviceprovider comprises the customer's preferred interexchange carrier (PIC).5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the service providercomprises the customer's local preferred interexchange carrier (LPIC).6. A method for removing a protection associated with a customer'saccount that prevents a change of the customer's service provider, themethod comprising: receiving a request to change the customer's serviceprovider; determining that the requested change cannot be provisioneddue to the protection associated with the customer's account; inresponse to the determination, providing notification that the changecannot be provisioned without the customer authorizing removal of theprotection; receiving the customer's authorization to remove theprotection; and reviewing the customer's authorization; and resolvingwhether to remove the protection based upon the review of the customer'sauthorization.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising removing theprotection associated with the customer's account, thereby enabling thecustomer's service provider to be changed.
 8. The method of claim 6,further comprising sending a disposition notice in response to aresolution as to whether to remove the protection.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the service provider comprises thecustomer's preferred interexchange carrier (PIC).
 10. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the service provider comprises thecustomer's local preferred interexchange carrier (LPIC).
 11. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the request includes customer accountinformation.
 12. The method according to claim 6, wherein the customer'sauthorization to remove the protection is accessed via a hyperlinkassociated with an audio file.
 13. The method according to claim 6,wherein the protection comprises slamming protection.
 14. A method forremoving slamming protection from a customer's account when the customerhas requested a service provider change, the method comprising:presenting a script to the customer that solicits at least one responsefrom the customer including whether the customer authorizes the removalof slamming protection from the customer' account; recording and storingthe script and the at least one customer response; sending a request viathe Internet requesting that the slamming protection be removed from thecustomer's account, the request including a link associated with anaudio file that contains the recording of the customer's authorizationto remove the slamming protection.
 15. The method according to claim 14,wherein the request is sent in response to a rejection received from thecustomer's local telephone company to change the service provider of thecustomer.
 16. The method according to claim 15, further comprisingreviewing the rejection and submitting a notification of the rejectionto a third party verification vendor.
 17. The method according to claim16, wherein the third party verification vendor receives thenotification and reviews the customer's authorization.
 18. The methodaccording to claim 16, wherein the third party verification vendor editsthe audio file.
 19. The method according to claim 14, wherein theservice provider comprises the customer's preferred interexchangecarrier (PIC).
 20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the serviceprovider comprises the customer's local preferred interexchange carrier(LPIC).
 21. The method according to claim 14, wherein the request issent by the service provider.
 22. The method according to claim 14,wherein the request is sent by a third party verification vendor.
 23. Asystem for removing a protection preventing the change of a customer'sservice provider without authorization of the customer, the systemcomprising: a server receiving a request to remove the protection, therequest including a link to an audio file of the customer authorizingthe removal of the protection; a database storing customer informationand comparing information associated with the request against the storedcustomer information; and a client that activates the link causing theaudio file to play.
 24. The system according to claim 23, furtherincluding a computer generating an order to remove the protection.
 25. Amethod for effecting a change associated with a customer's account inwhich the change requires a verbal authorization of the customer, themethod comprising: receiving a request to effect a change on thecustomer's account, the request including an audio file containing thecustomer's authorization to the change; referencing the audio file by ahyperlink associated with the audio file; listening to the customer'sauthorization in the audio file and determining whether to effect thechange; and effecting the change when the determination indicates thatthe change should be effected.